The Android Marketplace has real success stories such as Aaron La’s Advanced Task Manager; its open slant gives opportunity to many developers who can’t afford a Mac to join a huge market place. Every day, Android grows, and barring the all-out success of Windows Phone 7, it is destined to remain at the top, at least as market share leader. But, all is not well.

According to the Reg, Google’s hands-off approach allows its Marketplace to drown in oceans of porn just as the App Store was chocked by useless apps (fart and flashlight) in its early days. There is another negative effect: piracy. Despite the fact that the average selling price for Android apps is less than their iPhone, developers are strangled by app pilfering. The net result is that 49% of Android developers are making less than they expected and only 27% making more than they expected. Again, there is no question that Android is the market leader. For developers, it is an attractive platform. But it isn’t the heaven and spice that disgruntled iPhone developers may think it is. Google needs to adapt to keep its most important customer, the developer, happy. Happy, loaded developers make great apps. Currently iPhone Development, while a lot more controlled, has a friendlier, more lucrative face; it also tends to sport much more high quality apps.

Cute puppies, eh? That is what the world will be saying in defence of forChan, the new app which has a little more under the bonnet than a few cuddly wan-chans. iHustleApps little app is stealth porn; it has made it well under Apple’s surface-to-unfair missile radar and was approved in under 12 hours. But forChan is more than just another break, it is a breakthrough in the world of iDevice porn.

When I decried Apple’s wishy washy stance toward iPhone porn, I was on to something. iPhone porn viewing won’t magically disappear because of a lack of official support. And with the constant rise of internet pornography, malicious sites are taking advantage of unwary users. So, rather than avoiding the issue of sex, why not commercialise a safe, phishing-free app or suite of apps for porn users? It has been a long time coming (pun?), but thanks to Sexapp Shop and the Premier App Shop, now there is a way. While not downloadable via iTunes or the App Store, Sexshop apps are real, legal apps which use “Apple-approved technology”, but the best bit is that from purchase to play, the process is discreet and mindful of the user’s privacy.

Apple execs will have their hands full when iPorn’s casually clad team — a professionally assertive group of five – leg its way up to Apple HQ. The team have made the pilgrimage before, but Apple, staunch to the end, have until now maintained an aloof footing when regarding pornography on the iPhone.

Whether or not teens are having sexual *********** or not isn’t important. Abstinence campaigners and Condom rights’ groups can debate that issue in a separate corner stocked with cooked stats. I’d rather flesh sex out from another angle: pornography’s rising per-capita market. Porn is taking over planet earth in part, thanks to the net. Just as the video store did to the radio store, internet porn may kill adult video houses. It’s easier to access, quicker, and easier to keep on the down-low.

Porn is practically everywhere on the internet – a fact which is likely not to change despite education, worried parents, or feigned self-control. Thanks to the internet, it is simply easier than ever to ‘happen upon’ porn; this fact unfortunately comes with one often largely overlooked side-effect: the startlingly high risk of disease transmission.

2009, December 4 update: Apple, partnered with Sexapp Shop and Premier App Shop have created a safer way for porn users to view porn. The fully sanctioned app store is accessed from the web and is detailed in this TouchMyApps article: Sexapp Store – Nerd Porn on the Go!

In the past we have been up in arms about Apple’s selective app approval process, but this time, I think Apple have made a smart fiscal move in giving the thumbs up to Hottest Girls. Allen Leung’s app appeared, rose the ladder to the #2 spot and then in a puff of spray-on body-oil, limply disappeared. Rife with downloadable content, naked women and fetish genre’s, it was is a piece of App Store history as much as iBoobs was in its short life. Whether Hottest Girls’ disappearance was as Allen says, because of server overload or because Apple pulled the plug, we likely will not know till it is back up again or, there is an update. If Apple’s doing, it was a silly mistake: Hottest Girls has real potential as a money-making apparatus.

Krapps have an entire webpage dedicated to outing the naughty, crude, sloppy apps and Apple’s misfires. Every once in a while, TMA spots something ‘funny’ at the App Store. This time, that something comes in the shape of Pocket Girls, an app that is probably the most pornographic and blatantly exploitive at the App Store. Downloading Pocket Girls is contingent on several facts: you must own an iDevice, a credit card and you must be 12 years old. These ‘infrequent[ly]‘ sexually aimed pictures depict girls in poses that are only seen in peep shows and pornographic material. Apple have approved it rather quickly without finding much out about the dev, MSHOT, who if anything, are hard on about sexual exploitation. That said, Pocket Girls is the first, and most memorable among App Store soft-core porn apps.

Project4Pros has just released an anonymous web browser for the iPhone/iPod Touch. For those who have a habit of covering their surfing tracks (maybe you don’t want your girlfriend to know you are secretly ordering her a dozen roses for no good reason or are simply browsing for engagement rings…rrrright) by constantly clearing Mobile Safari’s history, then you may find Incognito rather handy.Continue reading…

AVG, one of the most popular Antivirus protection softwares for the PC, has released a new iOS app. No, it’s not a tool to scan your iPhone or iPad for viruses and malware, but rather its purpose is to keep your precious little ones at home away from the web’s widespread filth. Called AVG Family Safety, the app will keep the entire family safe from “scam, fraud, phishing and potentially malicious online content” (not to mention porn). So if lil Johnny’s curious about “boobs” and googles it…Bam!, AVG’s there to block the search. It’s similar to other web browser apps in that you can create bookmarks and enjoy tabbed browsing, but it’ll also allow you to set up a password and manually block sites you don’t wish your kids to visit.

Fischer Audio have updated their best-selling DBA-02. And what an update it is. The DBA-02 MKII is a delightful earphone replete with comfort and an accessory kit that is the envy of the earphone world. How about its sound, you ask? I’ll be singing praises soon enough.